Sheila M. Riley, FEDLINK Advisory Council (FAC) DRAFT
Minutes of the FAC Meeting - March 23, 2000
FAC Present: FAC Absent: FLICC/FEDLINK Present:
Maxine Brown (Chair) Cheryl Thomas Susan Tarr
Ken Nero (Vice-Chair) Louise LeTendre Milton MeGee
Bonnie Klein
Denise Lomax
Sheila Riley
Fred Rettenmaier
Carla Pomager
AGENDA
1. Approval of the February 17th FAC Meeting Minutes FAC
2. FAC Issues and Topics -- Maxine Brown, Chair
April 27 Membership Meeting
Topic and Working Group Reports
3. FY2001 Budget Briefing -- Fred Rettenmaier, FAC Liaison to the Budget & Finance
Working Group
4. FLICC/FEDLINK Update -- Susan M. Tarr, FLICC Executive Director, FEDLINK
Managers/Staff
5. Committee Reports
6. Old Business
7. New Business
OCLC Board Election -- Louise LeTendre
8. Announcements
1. Approval of the February 17, 2000 FAC Meeting Minutes -- FAC
The FAC made several corrections. Carla Pomager moved that the FAC approve the
February 17, 2000 minutes; Fred Rettenmaier seconded the motion. The FAC voted its approval
as amended.
2. FAC Issues and Topics -- Maxine Brown, Chair
The FAC reviewed a draft agenda for the April 27th FEDLINK Spring Membership
meeting. Martha Kyrillidou was recommended by Julia Blixrud of ARL to speak on library
performance measures. In his discussions with her, Milton MeGee said that she was enthusiastic
and felt able to tailor her talk to federal libraries.
The FAC suggested adding reports from the following other FLICC Working Groups:
Personnel WG, LC Bicenntennial WG, and the Preservation and Binding WG.
Denise Lomax inquire whether there would be an update on NTIS. The FAC advised that an
update be given in paper form which includes the address of the NCLIS web site. This website
contains good information on NTIS and the summary hearings.
Milton MeGee will continue working on the meeting agenda and contact the Working Group
chairs.
3. FY2001 Budget Briefing -- Fred Rettenmaier, FAC Liaison to the Budget & Finance
Working Group
Fred Rettenmaier stated that Susan Tarr and her staff worked on the budget proposal and
met with Carol Bursik, Chair of the Budget & Finance Working Group to clarify. He distributed
the following data sheets to the FAC: the FY2001 Budget Proposal, the FY2001 Budget by
Object Class, Transfer/Direct Cost Breakdown Analysis, and the FY2001 Personnel list.
Although the Actual FY99 data is not complete yet, the WG wanted available data put in
for comparison purposes. The fee structure remains the same but fees for training have been
increased an extra $25./person for a full day of training. They continue to tighten up in all areas.
Fred said that surveys of the largest user members of FEDLINK continue to show that the
revenue numbers are going down. As a result they are projecting for FY2001 based on the lower
revenues seen in FY99. Susan Tarr said they do not figure in any salary lapses because LC
wants conservative estimates here. If they do lose someone during the year, then they will have
more to work with later. Another savings possibility is if the revolving funds legislation goes
through. It contains language that allows carryover of funds from FY2000 to FY2001.
Denise Lomax asked if a decision had been made regarding Technical Processing services.
Susan answered that no decision has been made yet. Because of other pressing initiatives this
year they are letting it ride which means that it would not be in place on October 1st. They intend
to look at this again later in the year, and, if still wanted, the service could still be used as long as
it is in place by mid-year. Susan said they were also looking into pairing up with LC on this.
The FAC will be asked to vote on the budget at the next meeting and we will be given a
full narrative document to review.
4. FLICC/FEDLINK Update -- Susan M. Tarr, FLICC Executive Director, FEDLINK
Managers/Staff
Working Group reports: The Awards WG announced the winners and a press release
went out. The co-recipients of the Library of the Year award are the NOAA Administration
Library and the Los Alamos National Research Library. The Patent and Trademark Library won
honorable mention. Marion Jerri Knihnicki, of the U.S. Army Transportation School is the
Librarian of the Year. Arlene Luster received honorable mention. The Library Technician of
the year is Rosette Risell of NRL.
The FAC discussed whether smaller libraries have a chance at being named because it is difficult
for them to compete with larger libraries. On point made, however, was that a librarian who ran
a small library could have as much or greater chance to be named Librarian of the year. Susan
said she would take the suggestion of another category to the Awards WG.
The Information Technology WG is working on two fronts. On April 17th they are hosting a
program on distance learning/remote communication technology. This will address how to help
people at the desktop. They are also volunteering to work with FEDLINK regarding online
services vendors to try and get consortia offers, thereby acting as technical representatives during
these discussions with vendors. They will also identify libraries who would be appropriate users
of the services.
The LC Bicentennial WG is closing down and they drafted a memo to this effect. FEDLINK has
asked them to be available for consultation through April. Susan Tarr spoke to them about
putting the bookmark and/or Federal Libraries Chronology in the LC time capsule. She also
thought that there was sufficient material gathered by the WG to turn the chronology into a
Federal Library Almanac.
The Personnel WG will meet again with OPM on April 13th. OPM has promised to come back
with research work on the Archivist series and answers to two questions: Why the Archivist
series is professional and the librarian series is not? Why does the Archivist series have a positive
education requirement while the librarian series does not? The WG is doing research on Section
C of the standard which has to do with experience substitution. The examples given fall short of
the narrative description. The WG will demonstrate that the Section C examples are not
appropriate or instructive. The hope is to eliminate the examples, provide different examples or
offer more information in the general statement. Susan said that KSAs (knowledge, skills, and
abilities) for reference, cataloging, and systems librarians are available on the web.
The Policy WG talked about the NCLIS report on NTIS. The next General Counsels' Forum is
June 1st. Technically this program is limited to permanent members of FLICC but interested
libraries can call Susan and make a case. FLICC is looking at doing the same kind of program
for CIOs, librarians, and attorneys. One program suggestion was to focus on Web Policies.
Maxine Brown suggested that a program could address the question of what everyone is doing
with ".com" web sites. Some libraries have very restrictive links policies regarding these sites.
Maxine said that the policy at her agency is that they can't link public information to ".com"
because of the appearance of endorsement. Fred Rettenmaier said that his organization handles
this by posting a general disclaimer.
Bonnie Klein suggested another program focus could be looking into UCITA (Uniform
Computer Information Transactions Act), Article 2B. This involves issues surrounding software
licensing and the possible passage of a Virginia law. The default clause in the Uniform
Commercial Code says a vendor retains all rights and the purchaser has none. Because the
software industry was heavily involved in the UCITA drafting process, the outcome has been a
detriment to consumer interests. What effects could this have for online databases and federal
Libraries? Milton MeGee thought that Federal law would supercede state law.
The Preservation WG is sponsoring disaster preparedness training on May 23rd. They are also
picking up on where the LC Bicentennial group left off by taking steps to identify collections in
federal libraries that need to be preserved. They will do a survey to find materials that should be
digitized and try to ascertain where libraries stand with rare collections. They are writing a
statement of work for Preservation services which they hope FEDLINK will sponsor.
The FLICC Forum is next week on March 30th. They have 100 ports available for
members who are located outside of D.C. to hook into the real media server. This is being done
as a pilot test. LC has a license for 100 simultaneous users and they hope to learn more about
distance transmission.
Milton MeGee announced that FEDLINK is exhibiting April 9-11 at the National
Contract Management Association Conference.
5. Old Business
Denise Lomax asked if the Reference Librarian Institute had been rescheduled. Susan
said she would check on the actual date. Ken Nero thought July 25-27 and Susan had it down for
June.
6. New Business
OCLC Board Election -- Louise LeTendre
Biographies of OCLC User Council nominees were distributed and the FAC should read
these and be prepared to advise at the next meeting.
7. Announcements
The Dept. of Labor Library is changing its name to the Wirtz Labor Library. There will
be a ceremony and open house on March 28th at 5:00 p.m. to celebrate this.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.